Jeremy Corbyn blasted by Jewish leaders for ‘leading’ Labour into ‘a home for anti-Semites’ – and for punishing those who speak out against it

The Board of Deputies of British Jews warned that Mr Corbyn had to take the party out of its 'deep abyss'

By Lynn Davidson, Whitehall Correspondent

30th July 2018, 1:10 am

Updated: 30th July 2018, 8:32 am

JEREMY Corbyn has turned Labour into a “home for overt anti-semites and anti-semitism” and punishes those who speak against it, Jewish leaders declared yesterday.

In their hardest-hitting statement yet, the Board of Deputies of British Jews said the Labour leader must take the party out of its “deep abyss” and show the world it can “return to being an anti-racist party”.

Marie van der Zyl, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, blasted: “Jeremy Corbyn is leading the Labour Party into a dark place of ugly conspiracy theories and it has become a home for overt antisemites and antisemitism.

“In 2018, Labour is not only a Party with extravagant levels of tolerance for antisemitism but one which deliberately obstructs measures to counter hatred and punishes those who speak out against it.

“Jeremy Corbyn needs to lead Labour out of this deep abyss and urgently demonstrate to the world Labour can return to being an anti-racist Party.”

The statement follows an unprecedented joint front page statement from the Jewish community’s three leading newspapers speaking out after the party failed to fully adopt an internationally-recognised definition of anti-semitism.

Ian Austin said Labour had turned into a “much more extreme” party as he became the second MP to be threatened with disciplinary action for disagreeing with the leader.

He BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend: : “He’s spent his entire time in politics on the extreme fringes of the Labour party supporting and defending all sorts of extremists and in some cases, frankly, anti-Semites.

It came as Jeremy Corbyn faces losing his allotment over the ongoing row.

Barnet Council have called for the Labour leader to be thrown off his patch in East Finchley, four miles from his Islington home.

The idea was put forward by Conservative Leader Richard Cornelius.

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In the latest official minutes of the council meeting, ex-Tory MP John Marshall asked Mr Cornelius to invite the Labour leader to discuss “the scourge of anti-Semitism, in the interests of community cohesion and wellbeing”.

Mr Cornelius replied: “This would be helpful. Margaret Hodge MP has labelled Jeremy Corbyn an anti-Semite. I wonder whether he should still have a Barnet allotment.”

It’s not clear whether the local council has the power to take the plot, which is run by the Barnet Allotments Federation, from Mr Corbyn.

Labour - who are now probing 250 more anti-Semitism claims - declined to comment on the allotment threat.

John McDonnell accidentally says Labour is an anti-Semitic party on BBC's Today show